room.

So, seeing that their hope of sailing was far off, (Ignatius & his companions) dispersed throughout the Venetian territory, with the intention of waiting the year they had agreed upon; after it was finished, if there was no passage, they would go to Rome. 

(from The Autobiography of St. Ignatius of Loyola)

Oh happy accident... so, having completed their studies in Paris, Ignatius & the companions discerned that they would make way to Jerusalem via Venice so as to spend their lives there "in the service of souls". Always good with a backup plan (Ignatius - the Patron Saint of Plan B), they agreed that if they were not given the green light to head to Jerusalem they would return to the Eternal City and place themselves at the disposal of the pope.

Long & short: Ignatius & the boys end up staying in Venice from late 1535 thru late 1537... a period of much-neeed spiritual space & room for them - a break between the busy-ness of their studies in Paris & the awaiting busy-ness that would unfold in Rome.

The experiential foundations for Jesuit tertianship.

A break from the busy-ness.
Room.

It was about three years ago that one of my spiritual directees making the 19th Annotation Retreat used that very term - room - to describe her journey in the midst of the Spiritual Exercises... that the Exercises were providing her the much-needed space in her life to pray, reflect so as to enter more deeply into her personal, unique relationship with Christ. 

Room.

Clinging to that word, I found my desire to return to the Exercises not as director but as directee emerging - a desire to enter to step away from my own busy-ness and find that explicit room the Exercises provide. Along with additional factors, it was this was this desire that led me to tertianship here in the Philippines.

As our tertian directors Pri & Mon stated on our first day together, tertianship is to provide that very room. Pri aptly said that "where there is space & room, much formation can & will occur." So true! To foster this, they provided us "the five R's" as guidelines for entering such room: rest, read*, reflect, relate (with God, one another & self), and reconcile (ibid). This is not to say that there is no apostolic component to tertianship - we'll be departing on our first "experiment" in just under two weeks (more on this later).

So for now... room**. 

*Regarding reading - allow me to betray the literature geek that is me... as part of the tertianship program, each of us has been provided an individual library of books on Jesuit history and Ignatian spirituality. Our former General, Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ, stressed in his document on Jesuit formation that a necessary part of tertianship is sapiential reading  - that is, reading on the topics of  Ignatius, the Society of Jesus and the Church not in a purely academic way, but reading with both head and heart. Room to read in such a way... as good as it gets! Current read - Dalmases' Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Jesuits. Haven't looked at this since novitiate... pure gift to be spending such time again!

**Lest ye think I am neglecting my personal soul food that is music, I offer a sixth R for fostering the aforementioned room: RPMs. On heavy rotation these days is the newly-released collaboration between Elvis Costello & The Roots - Wise Up Ghost. Brilliant stuff. Tune in, turn on... groove out.